Jury is still out

We just got this one as a Yule gift to ourselves. We're rather inexperienced but with a Masters degree and a Phi Beta Kappa we figure we're fairly high on the learning curve. Having said that if you try to do this by the instruction manual you're gonna be lost in no time at all.
Dark night, out in the boonies, nice dark sky, follow the manual and - BINGO! - you can't find a thing - at least not with the Autostar tracking! The "secrets of the clan" are found in the manuals you have to dig up on the Meade website - specifically for the Autostar controller - and in the FAQ pages there. There are a great many things you have to do first that aren't in the book, Horatio.
I'll have to come back and update when/if we learn how to use Polaris for alignment, get the drive train aligned, get the Collimation refined etc. etc.
Oh Yes! Get a 'Bucket o'Batteries' because you need eight and they lose their stuff just when you think you've got the hang of it. Better yet, we're buying a battery recharger.